3b1b / manim
Python · GitHub Trending 2 Sep 2026 · 86 stars today
Six words, one constraint

An engine for animation is common. Explanatory is the hard word.

$ pip install manim
github.com/3b1b/manim

Animation engine for explanatory math videos. Drop the adjective and this is a rendering library. Keep it and every frame owes the viewer exactly one new idea, which is a constraint on the author rather than on the renderer.

One idea per frame, drawn as a storyboard

illustrative construction, not manim output
frame 01t0
this frame addsthe plane
frame 02t1
this frame addsthe circle
frame 03t2
this frame addsthe radius
frame 04t3
this frame addsthe angle
four frames, four ideas nothing arrives twice no manim scene shown

The engine is the easy half

Rendering shapes over time is solved. Deciding what appears on frame three and what waits for frame four is the part that carries the explanation.

Math is the narrowing word

A general animation library needs a timeline and a shape system. A math one also needs objects that know they are equations, axes, and transforms.

What is not on this page

No API, no render time, no scene code, no output sample. The trending description is six words and publishes none of it.

Concept mock, not affiliated with the project. The complete GitHub Trending description on 2 September 2026 is "Animation engine for explanatory math videos." The four frames are an illustrative construction drawn by hand in SVG to show what one-idea-per-frame means; they are not rendered by manim and no manim API, scene, or output appears here.